International Journal of Advances in Optical Communication and Networks

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Applications of Fiber Grating (FG) in Modern Optical Communications and Beyond

Bo Xiang
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA bx29@cornell.edu

Abstract: Since the advent of Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) in 1980's, it has always been an critical component capable of a wide variety of applications, such as notch filtering, dispersion compensation, channel equalization, real time signal processing, etc. in optical communications. This paper presents a review of these applications of FBG as well as the similar approaches utilized in radio frequency (RF) and microwave domain. Keywords: Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG), notch filtering, dispersion, equalizer, real time signal processing.

The organization of the paper is as follows: section 2 introduces the fundamental principles of the FBG and its applications as well as the design procedure for a specified FBG. Section 3 introduces the designs and applications of different types of FBG's and discusses the applications of other optical devices, and the possibilities of replacing these devices with FBG. Section 4 discusses the applications of FBG principles in the area other than optical communications and the future of FBG. Finally section 5 gives the conclusion.

2. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF FBG

1. INTRODUCTION The optical communication experiences great improvement in the past two decades [1-3]. A number of applicable devices were introduced in the optical domain and these devices help to realize various useful signal processing functions [4-7]. Among these optical signal processing devices is Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG), one of the most attractive and widely-used devices, whose principle is utilized not only in optical domain, but also in radio frequency (RF), microwave and photonic microwave domain [10-26]. FBG was first introduced in 1980 after the fiber grating fabrication technique was invented in 1978 [7]. It is based on an optical fiber with certain type of index modulation. The index modulation is realized by changing the refractive index along a proper length of optical fiber which is divided into a number of segments and each segment is assigned with refractive index [8-9]. FBG has the multi-sectional structure, very similar to that of the transversal filter, also known as finite impulse response (FIR) filter in digital domain or represented as the tapped delay line filter in microwave and RF domain [10-12]. In fact, theoretical analysis reveal that all these multi-sectional filters or tapped filters have the similar mathematical model and expression. A detailed analysis, which is also included in this paper, is performed in [12], from where we could have a better understanding of the design procedures of a specifically designed FBG. One of the most attractive attributes of FBG is that it can be designed with arbitrary frequency responses including amplitude and phase characteristics [7-12]. Therefore FBG is regarded as a key component in communication and signal processing. The application includes notch filtering, real time spectrum analysis, real time transformation (Fourier Transform, Chirped Transform, etc.), reconfigurable tunable delay line, RF filters, etc. Nowadays, FBG can be tailored to yield desired frequency response. Compared to most optical signal processing devices, FBG exhibits efficiency in cost, size and performance [7]. The principle of FBG is based upon the Bragg's law first discovered by Sir William Lawrence Bragg during his study on X-Ray and crystal structures [8]. FBG has a segmented structure with gradual changes in refractive index. Fig. 1 shows a typical schematic of a generic FBG [8,9,12]. It can be fabricated based on a short length of optical fiber or photonic crystal. It belongs to a reflective type of filter. The structure selectively reflects certain wavelengths due to the effective optical length between the adjacent sections and the designate wavelengths constructively interfered at the input port and destructively interfered at the output port, resulting the frequency selectivity of FBG. In other words, each interface between the adjacent segment with different amount of refractive index contributes a Fresnel reflection [8]. For a narrowband application, the effective optical length of the segment should equal to the quarter wavelength of the specified wavelength. In that sense, the reflected waves from two adjacent interfaces have a half wavelength difference in their traveling distances. Similarly, if the length of the segment gradually changes along the optical fiber or photonic crystal, different wavelengths constructively interfere at the input port or reflective port and multiple wavelengths can be obtained with different amount of phase or group delay. This is also known as the dispersive chirped mirrors [12]. 2.1 Narrowband FBG analysis The refractive index perturbation in FBG should satisfy the Bragg condition as shown in the following equation [8,9]: ( z ) = 2 neff ( z ) ( z ) (1) where is the wavelength in vacuum, neff is the effective

Fig. 1 A typical structure of a FBG [8]. refractive index in the fiber and is the length of each

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segment. All of the parameters are subjected to the variations along z axis. As mentioned before, if the FBG is designed for a narrowband application, the z dependence can be removed resulting in a periodic structure. On the other hand, if the FBG is designed with wideband characteristic, the gradual change in these parameters along z axis can be captured with Equation (1). Coupled mode theory (CMT) has been employed to analyze the operational principles of FBG [8,9]. Under the condition of the Bragg's law and slowly varying effective index, the reflection at a specific interface can be evaluated. The propagation constant has the following expression [8,9]: = l r 2m / (2) where l , r stand for the propagation constants of forward and backward waves respectively, is the grating period, and m is the order of diffraction. With practical boundary conditions, Al(0)=1, Ar(L)=0 where L is the total length of the FBG, Ar and Al is the amplitude of the forward and backward traveling wave, the reflectivity of the FBG is derived as follows in [9]:

Fig. 2 the broadband FBG with chirp characteristic [12]. 2.3 Reflective FBG Most FBG is based upon the reflection, therefore, proper techniques should be applied to separate the reflected wave, which is the output wave, from the forward traveling wave, which is the input wave [4]. In optical domain, an optical circulator is used to perform the function. An optical circulator is capable of directing the light wave in a clock wise (or counter clock wise depending on how the numbering of the ports are defined) manner among the ports [4]. In microwave or RF domain, this is realized with directional couplers, which has 6 dB intrinsic loss. This paper focuses on the applications of reflective type FBG, while the transmission type FBG [4] is beyond the scope of this paper.

R=

| K | 2 sinh 2 ( SL) S 2 cosh 2 ( SL) + ( 2) 2 sinh 2 ( SL)

(3)

when |K|>/2,

| K | 2 sin 2 ( SL) R= 2 S cos 2 ( SL) + ( 2) 2 sin 2 ( SL)

when |K|</2, In both cases,

3. DESIGN
(4)

AND APPLICATION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF FBG

(5) Assuming phase matching conditions and small amount of approximation on the higher order diffraction, we can have the upper bound of the reflectivity as follows [9]:

S 2 =| K | 2 2

This section introduces various applications of periodic and non-periodic FBG, the functions of FBG are explored, and a door is opened for the future applications of this attractive device. The applications of FBG include the frequency selective devices, broadband signal processing devices, equalization and dispersion compensation. 3.1 Optical notch filter

R max = tanh (| K | L)
2

(6)

where the coupling coefficient can be expressed as [9]: (7) n is the modulation depth of the neff in equation (1), B is the Bragg wavelength, which is affected by the order of diffraction. A further investigation on equation (6) will reveal that the bigger the K is, the longer the L is, the higher value of reflectivity will be presented. 2.2 Broadband FBG analysis Fig. 2 shows a broadband dispersive chirped mirror based on FBG structure [12]. Similar analysis from the pervious section can be applied on the broadband FBG. The only difference is that there is not only a perturbation in the refractive index, but also in the segment length . At each interface, a portion of the wavelength is reflected and aggregate at the input port. Furthermore, a profile can be added to the whole FBG structure in order to achieve envelope shaping over a wide range of frequency. All of the attributes offer great freedom in design, and the segments form a designable array, and each segment makes contribution to the reflectivity. Fig. 3 experimental setup of the optical notch filter [10]. The optical notch filter [10,11,13,14] is realized with a grating-based transversal filter. It achieves accurate control on the segment length and refractive index using proper UV post-processing for trimming. The FBG is written holographically in germanoslilicate fiber to obtain segmented structures with general optical fibers. Furthermore, the tight control of the grating reflectivity with minimized mismatch is also preferable by using fringeless UV transverse illumination. Thermal erasure of gratings by heating provides another approach for trimming reflectivity. The frequency response of this notch filter is shown in Fig. 4, this optical notch filter is capable of spectral responses up to 20 GHz with notch depth of 44 dB. The control of the mismatches is within 1%.

K = n / B

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Fig. 4 a the grating tap spacing of 150.25 mm, b. the grating tap spacing of 28 mm [10]. 3.2 Real time spectrum analysis and Fourier Transformation The real time spectrum analysis and Fourier Transformation is realized with the dispersive element, whose group delay changes with the operating frequency, the different frequency components of the input signal are assigned with different amount of group delay [4]. In that sense, the dispersive element provides a frequency to time mapping, giving temporal representation of the frequency components. Therefore, the frequency components can be captured in time domain, realizing the real time spectrum analysis [4-6,15]. Ideally, the dispersive element should have a wide operating frequency range with large delay variance for the real time spectral signal to be fully separated. This gives rise to a popular parameter of the dispersive element, time-bandwidth product, also known as TBP [19]. Since the information of the signal is been processed by the dispersive element in a real time manner, the information is imprinted onto the carriers on which the signal is modulated. Therefore, large TBP allows more cycles of carriers to achieve more accurate signal processing [15,20]. Moreover, there are constraints on the signal side as well. Instead of continuous signal, this approach is particularly applicable for the time-windowed or pulsed signal. The detailed analysis can be found in [4], a straightforward and qualitative explanation of the condition is that the TBP should be large enough to handle broadband operation and the time width of the signal should be relatively small. An expression can be used to explain the condition [4]:

Fig. 5 illustration of the real time spectrum analyzer. LCFG stands for the linearly chirped fiber grating [4]. Fig. 5 shows the illustration of the real time spectrum analyzer, the input signal is a time windowed signal whose power spectrum locates in the operating range of the LCFG. The output signal, shown in the right hand side of the figure, is a spectral representation in the time domain.

timewidth 2 << 1 2 chirprate

(8)

where the time width stands for the input signal and chirp rate represents of the dispersive element. To the best of the author's knowledge, this technique is widely used in the optical domain with hundreds of THz with the group delay variance of 100 to 1000 ps. The TBP of these devices are on the order of 103 to 106, which guarantees the accuracy of the analysis [4-6, 15]. Some specified applications using the real time spectrum analysis are also very preferable, among them is the algorithm realized with Fourier Transform [6,15]. Fig. 5 to Fig. 7 shows an optical real time spectrum analyzer realized with the chirped fiber gratings. The system is realized with reflective type of FBG and the optical circulator is used to separate the reflected wave from the injected wave. The reflective FBG used in this work has a very good linearity in group delay and flatness in magnitude response. The simulation in Fig. 7 explains that the FBG is good enough for the spectrum analysis and Fourier Transform in a real time manner [4].

Fig. 6 the amplitude and group delay characteristics of the linearly chirped fiber gratings [4]. Fig. 6 shows the frequency responses of the LCFG. The ripples in the amplitude and group delay attribute to the discontinuous nature of the LCFG [4]. However, the errors caused by these ripples are tolerable as can be seen in Fig. 7, showing both spectral and temporal analysis of the input and output signal respectively [4]. Similar work has been done by the same research group providing an experimental demonstration of the real time Fourier Transformation [6]. The fundamental principle of this operation is based upon the paraxial diffraction in space and dispersion in time. The space is directly related to the frequency in the FBG because of the phase matching condition for constructive interference explained in the previous section. This duality gives rise to the following application, time lens. 3.3 Time lens and photonic stretching The idea of time lens was first proposed by Brian Kolner in 1989 [16], followed up by the detailed theory in 1994 [17]. Conventional lens provides different amounts of refractive index at different locations of the lens, resulting in the spatial image of the original object [16]. The image could be either expanded or compressed considering the relative location of the objects and the lens [17]. Similarly, the fiber grating or other devices which provide quadratic phase characteristic. LCFG in 3.2 can be used as to provide the quadratic phase characteristic [16].

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3.4 Tunable true time delay Tunable true time delay (TTD) is a key component in the phase array, which are important communication techniques in beam forming [23-25]. Fig. 9 shows a typical setup of the phase array based beam former [24]. The tunable TTD is realized with linearly chirped FBG with an optical circulator. In this paper alone, the true time delay operates on a single wavelength to avoid wavelength conversion [24]. The actuator controller controls the temperature and strain of the Chirped FBG. The phase change provided by the Chirped FBG exhibits dependence on the temperature and strain. These two effects modifies the local resonance conditions and changes the group delay [24].

Fig. 9 Illustration of the optical beam former [24].

Fig. 7 the spectral and temporal analysis of the input (a) and output (b) signal respectively [4]. Another application that involves the temporal manipulation of the signal is the photonic time stretched ADC, proposed by B. Jalali [18-21]. Fig. 8 shows the illustration of the photonic stretched ADC [18]. The dispersive element used in this system is the single mode fiber. However, it can be replaced by the chirped FBG with slight modifications on the schematic because of its reflective nature. Further exploration of this technique helps us to capture the femtosecond pulses [22]. The pulses is stretched for more than 200 times, and can be captured with current commercial oscilloscope. In other words, this technique helps to realize the fastest oscilloscope [22]. Similarly, this femtosecond oscilloscope is based upon a four wave mixing (FWM) time lens, which in principle can be replaced by FBG.

Fig. 10 the phase change due to the perturbation in temperature [24].

Fig. 8 Illustration of the photonic stretched ADC [18].

Fig. 11 the phase change due to the perturbation in strain [24]. The similar approach is also applied with the Chirped Electromagnetic Bandgap Gratings (CEBG) [25], which deals with the ultra-wideband (UWB) operation. The CEBG employs the similar design principle of the FBG, but uses

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microstrip line in the printed circuit board [25]. The basic setup of this UWB tunable TTD is shown in Fig. 12. Unlike the previous work, this work employs the dispersion over the frequency to achieve the tunable TTD [24]. The first mixer on the right moves the spectrum of the pulse to the operating frequency range, controlled by the VCO. The first CEBG, CEBG1 is used to provide the time delay. The CEBG1 is a dispersive element, providing different group delays for different frequency. The second mixer on the right moves the pulse back to its original spectral range. The second CEBG, CEBG2, is used to compensate for the chirping conditions that is modified by CEBG1 [25].

each structural or material discontinuity. PBG directly deals with the frequency range of interest, avoid any electro-optic modulations, and can handle frequency shift more easily than in the optical domain.

5. Conclusion
As a mature technique, FBG has been used intensively in the optical domain for optical signal processing. The huge TBP it can provide makes it an attractive device for real time signal processing. Besides, the similar approach of PBG is introduced in the electrical domain, which sheds light on the real time signal processing in the microwave and RF domain.

References
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Fig. 12 UWB tunable TTD based on CEBG [25]. 3.5 Structured chirped FBG Apart from the conventional FBG, which only modifies the refractive index and segment length, the CFBG can also contain single or multiple discontinuities in the cladding layer along the grating structure [26-27]. The modulation on the diameter of the cladding provides a new degree of freedom in the formation of one or more passbands, increasing the order of the filter, achieving better filter characteristic [26].

4. Discussion
FBG is an interesting devices and key component in the optical domain [7]. Nowadays, with the prosperity of the RF and microwave photonics, a lot of applications in RF and microwave is being assisted by the optical domain because its ultra high carrier frequency helps to achieve high speed signal processing [28]. The signal is first moved to optical domain and then modulates back into the microwave domain after the signal processing is performed. One typical example is the RF filter with FBG. The distributed nature of the FBG is employed in this work to perform as a transversal filter [29]. Nevertheless, the similar approaches is used in the microwave photonics regime to get transversal filter. Unlike the previous one, this work employs a parallel structure instead of a serial distributed structure [29]. Beyond the scope of optical domain, the FBG is being used in UWB range as explained in 3.4. A more general approach is known as photonic bandgap (PBG) structure [30-32]. It modifies the dielectric constant and structure of the transmission line in accordance with the coupled mode theory, to achieve better filter performance. Both FBG and PBG has the same principle of operation because of its distributed nature and the small reflections happen locally at

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